Viewpoint: College Exasperations

Emerson said it best: An authentic education "allows a scholar to
give the world the shape of his own mind.'' But old Waldo never had to
endure the 20th-century college admissions process. Harvard just said,
"Come.''

I have been teaching in public high school for 28 years, and every
December and April I witness the anguish that accompanies the letters
from colleges that say, "Don't come.'' Given the shock and pain that
accompany these letters, I have felt compelled to hold a deferral party
in December for the disappointed. We critique deferral and rejection
letters, make offerings to Buddha for better fortune in April, and
consume endless numbers of hot-fudge sundaes, often the only true
comfort in a cold world. Ironically, the party has created a sufficient
cachet for the value of rejection, and one student who was admitted to
her early choice told me that the only drawback to admission was
missing the party.

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